4 Reasons We Should Abolish the DEA and Start Over

4 Reasons We Should Abolish the DEA and Start Over

abolish the DEA

Why the DEA can’t be Trusted with Drug Policy

I’m sure everyone reading this article isn’t a fan of the DEA. The DEA has been blocking cannabis legalization since its inception in 1973. Since then, they have not only blocked cannabis-research and other drug research, but actively placed people’s lives in danger. We’ll get to that in a second.

Throughout the following article, we’ll be covering the exact reasons why the DEA should actually be dissolved.

Let’s start with the Founder

Guess who started the DEA? Richard Nixon. Right after declaring the War on Drugs in 1971 by creating the Controlled Substance Act, the DEA was formed 2 years later. The Controlled Substance Act was created without any real scientific evidence within the categories and substances like Cannabis was added to the most restrictive scheduling for political reasons.

A Nixon aide a few years ago came out and stated that the entire motivation for declaring the War on Drugs was based on racism and political unrest. He found that cannabis was a common factor between anti-war protestors and the African American community.

While he couldn’t legally disrupt public protest, under the guise of the War on Drugs, he could bust up manifestations and arrest protestors. Now it was no longer a constitutional issue, but a “public safety issue”.

This by itself should merit the disbanding of the DEA, mainly because the founder was a convicted criminal.

The Scheduling is Bogus

Schedule I drugs, or drugs that holds no medical value and has a high potential for abuse, makes absolutely no sense. Within this category are substances like Cannabis, Psilocybin, LSD, Mescaline, MDMA and Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) to name a few.

There are other drugs as well which does constitute a Schedule I categorization such as Heroin, Fentanyl, and other opioids.

However, taking a closer look at the psychedelic category, it doesn’t hold up to the definition of the scheduling.

Cannabis has plenty of medical benefits and while people can abuse it, it’s not as dangerous as legal substances such as alcohol or tobacco. In fact, Alcohol isn’t even within the scheduling of harmful drugs. It’s managed by an entirely different federal agency.

Now let’s take a closer look at the other psychedelics on the list. Primarily, dimethyltryptamine. DMT is a naturally occurring psychedelic produced by your own body. The substance is produced in the lungs, liver and in the pineal gland. In essence, every single human being on this planet is breaking the law by transporting a Schedule-I substance.

Now, according to the FDA, the scheduling was created on the potential for abuse and medical validity. However, how can you make a substance that is naturally occurring within the human body illegal? Where is the science to back up the ‘potential for abuse’?

The policy literally made every human being illegal.

Now let’s get to the DEA

The FDA acts as the “science informer” (in many cases bogus), whereas the DEA acts as the enforcer or these bogus laws.

The problem with this is that the DEA has had a terrible track record. In recent years we’ve heard them say that people are lacing Halloween candies with cannabis or that people are lacing cannabis with fentanyl. None of these things actually happened.

But let’s go back to 1978, where a Congressional Committee found that the DEA was supplying Paraquat, a lethal herbicide, to Mexico to help “eradicate” the flow of marijuana to the US. The problem with this was that many of those crops were harvested.

Animal studies have shown that even inhaling as little as a half a milligram of paraquat in a year can cause serious and in some cases, irreversible lung damage. In other words, the DEA was knowingly poisoning people for the sake of “stopping the evil weed”.

Understanding this gives us insight into the irrational fears of “pot-laced candies”, namely because the DEA has been responsible for doing these acts in the past.

It’s unconstitutional

Some people might argue that the DEA is a necessary evil. “If there wasn’t an agency to stop drugs, people would use it rampantly!”

The truth however is not this. Prior to the DEA and the War on Drugs, drug use was actually quite contained. There were some people abusing drugs, but it wasn’t as prominent as today. What changed?

The moment the War on Drugs was declared, it created a black market that inflated the price of drugs and helped create transnational criminal organizations.

However, irrespective of the negative effect of current drug policies. One could argue that it’s entirely unconstitutional. The constitution guarantees people inalienable rights such as “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”.

Drug use, falls under this classification. If you don’t believe me…eat a mushroom and measure your happiness levels. Furthermore, the fact that we gave the government so much power over our consumption choices means that we literally sold our liberty (freedom of choice) for “perceived security”.

Let’s Abolish the DEA

I don’t know how we would go about this. I’m no expert in law. But if there is anyone out there that understands federal and constitutional law…it might be a good time to start focusing your attention on figuring out how to disband this dishonest, dangerous and counter-productive agency that costs billions annually to maintain.

It’s time we have a more matured approach to drug policies. The mere fact that we’re still holding onto laws that were created by a known criminal (Nixon), is quite baffling.